Laws or regulations may require that items be tracked. For example, regulations may require that a part is tracked so that it can be located and identified if it is later determined to be defective. A part marked with a unique number may be easily counterfeited by copying the number. Additionally, the use of numbers and/or letters to mark a part may require a large amount of space, if the part is to be marked with a unique number.
The use of marks, or symbols, may be used to create a field that encodes a unique identifier. A field of marks may be created that is both small in physical size, but yet encodes a large enough unique identifier that a large number of parts may be marked uniquely. However, a small mark with a high data density may be partially obliterated.
It may be advantageous to be able to mark an item with a unique identifier in the form of a field of marks, to allow item-specific tracking, but still retain the ability to decode all or a portion of the data if some of the field is obliterated. For at least these reasons, systems and methods which encode and decode data values in a field of marks are important for the management of items.